Trojans in, Wonders out

By Bill Kiser
Kannapolis Citizen
Kannapolis’ two high school baseball teams wrapped up their regular-season schedules this week heading in opposite directions.
While A.L. Brown’s players are packing up their gear, Northwest Cabarrus is looking to turn its fortunes around entering the state 3A playoffs.
The Trojans wrapped their season at 14-9 and 10-8 North Piedmont Conference, good for a third-place tie with South Rowan in the league standings.
That was also good enough to give Northwest one of the NPC’s six playoff berths, which will put them on the road to play the No. 1 seed from the Mountain Athletic Conference on Friday.
The Trojans, however, enter the playoffs on somewhat of a down note, having lost their last two games.
After beating Carson 2-0 on April 30, Northwest suffered shutout losses to league champion East Rowan (3-0 on May 2) and Lake Norman (9-0 on Monday).
Against the Cougars, Ryan Overcash — who has signed to play for Davidson next year — threw a three-hit complete game.
He struck out 11 batters in improving his record to 7-1, and also had two of the Trojans’ six hits, including a key RBI single in the fourth inning.
“That’s the way he’s thrown the ball all year long,” Northwest head coach Joe Hubbard said after the game. “He got ahead of batters, showed the curveball and the changeup … you can’t ask him to do any more than he did tonight.”
However, the Trojans couldn’t get their offense going against the Mustangs or Wildcats, suffering their only two shutout losses this season.
The Wonders finished the season with a 9-13 record and 7-9 in South Piedmont Conference play, good for seventh in the league standings.
Brown split its last two regular-season games, losing to Porter Ridge 7-2 on April 29, but bouncing back to beat cross-town rival Concord 5-1 on May 2.
That was the final game in a Wonders uniform for six seniors — David Larmond, Matt Mitchem, Matt Grimes, Kenneth Yates, Jacob Wright and Rashad Jackson.